To create value from data, you do need a big data strategy – right? Well, actually, probably not. According to Gartner, the ‘all-encompassing data strategy’ fails around 60% of the time. In fact, Gartner have even stopped publishing a Big Data ‘Hype Cycle’ (their measure of maturity and adoption of technologies).
As a word fractal is not frequently used in conversation. As a concept fractal is frequently present in our lives. Its presence is evident in nature. The concept of a fractal was established in large part by the work of Benoit Mandelbrot, a mathematician whose work covered a wide and diverse number of disciplines. Perhaps the most notable example of how he established the concept of a fractal was his study of England’s coastlines.
By Randall Bolten, longtime Silicon Valley CFO, author of "Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You” and adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley Extension.
Data visualization – or graphing – is one of the hottest buzzwords in FP&A today… right up there with “big data” and “predictive analytics”. It can certainly be an immensely powerful tool for helping your audience grasp your most important points.
Less than a quarter of a Financial Analyst’s time is spent with high value-add analysis - this is a finding of a survey run by SAP. Although the survey is 5 years old, it’s still relevant, the percentage may even have shrunk further as the amount of data to be analysed and reported on keeps increasing.
How many of us, when we are asked to a meeting with someone from FP&A, have rolled our eyes, thrown the head back and done a neck roll to relax the shoulders? Why do we have this over whelming feeling of dread when it comes to meeting with that team?
Finance and FP&A communities are regularly traversed by theoretical and generally hot discussions concerning few topics that are at the heart of FP&A processes. Analytics systems, business partnering and budget are currently among of the main one.